Apprentice
by FredMischiefmanagedGeorge
Summary: Tonks left Hogwarts to become an Auror. She didn't expect to meet a person even more terrifying than Professor Dumbledore. Written for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft, and Wizardry Assignment eight.


**A.N I think my first Tonks fic. Enjoy :)**

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><p>Right now it was forwards from here on out. All she had to do was walk right across that stage, and then take the certificate. She bit her lip. This was the end of Hogwarts. The end of her childhood, and going out into the world-<p>

"Nymphadora Tonks!" Professor Dumbledore called.

Tonks stood up. This was it. The moment. She stepped up onto the stage, and made her way over to the old professor, Albus Dumbledore, or Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, but Tonks didn't like delving into details. The big picture was an extremely powerful wizard called Professor Dumbledore, because he was her teacher. Who defeated Gellert Grindelwald.

Now, you may think that he would be a scary man, well Tonks would by lying if she said she wasn't the least bit intimidated, but she would also be lying saying he was the scariest person on the planet. Professor Dumbledore was rather kind. Strange, but kind. Tonks often liked to think she shared many traits with the man. Especially intimidation.

She could easily do that, with one thought in her head that she wanted to be a scary person. That was why Metamorphing was Tonks' favourite prank to pull.

Enough of her musings, Tonks berated herself. It was time to shake the Professor's hand. And so, Tonks shook the older man's hand, and gave him a wide grin. Dumbledore smiled back, slightly scaring Tonks, but she wouldn't admit it. Then Tonks realized something.

"Er, professor?" she asked.

"Yes, Nymphadora?" Dumbledore asked.

"Could you not call me that? Could you call me Tonks instead? I dislike my name." Tonks said.

She felt her hair turning bright red, and tried to withhold it. Professor Dumbledore chuckled lightly before nodding.

"Very well. Off you go Tonks."

Tonks gave him a bright smile. She held her certificate in hand that was given by her head of house, Jamie Richards with a bright smile, and was about to make it across the stage when she tripped. With a loud "omph!" Tonks fell flat upon her face. There was laughter, and whispers resounding throughout the hall as Tonks leapt up, brushed back her now vibrant red hair, and rushed off the stage. Tonks walked over to Charlie Weasley, her longtime friend, and sat down next to him.

"Nice going." he whispered, snickering.

"Shut it." Tonks scowled.

Charlie shook his head with laughter before leaping up when his name was called. Tonks laughed as Charlie turned bright red from his family's cheering.

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><p>"It seems that you have everything in place." the woman said, smiling at Tonks.<p>

"Thank you miss Harvey." Tonks said, gratefully.

"Anytime." the woman responded. "Your mentor will be-"

"Alastor Moody." a voice sounded.

Tonks whirled around, and felt her face pale dramatically. This man looked way more terrifying than Charlie ever could. He had an eye that swiveled around, and he had what appeared to be a wooden leg. The man held a walking stick in one of his hands. Tonks bit her lip.

"You!" he said, pointing at her. "Up!"

Tonks scrambled to get up, and stared at him, slightly frightened. He gestured for Tonks to follow him-which she did, but not before looking back at miss Harvey who sent her an encouraging smile. The two walked down quite a few halls before Tonks could no longer take the silence.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"Ah, that took almost five minutes. Excellent job." the man said.

"What do you mean?" Tonks frowned.

"I was seeing how long it would take you to ask questions." the man responded. "Quite a few others usually took longer than that."

"So we weren't going to anyplace in particular?" Tonks asked, in disbelief.

They had been walking for no reason at all! The man turned, and sent her a grin, but continued to walk.

"Precisely. However, we will be going to the training room." the man told her.

"You mean like weights, and stuff?" Tonks asked.

"Not exactly." the man responded, shaking his head. "It is more of a magical dummy room where you will be practicing the main components of being an auror. Do you know them?"

There was a beat of silence where Tonks thought she had forgotten them, before nearly yelling them out aloud.

"Strategy, Stealth, Speed, and Strength." she said. "The four S's."

"Correct, but there is another, my own personal one I like to have, Vigilance." he said. "It is where you must be alert, not just do the four S's."

"Alright." Tonks said, nodding. "I can do that."

"Well then." the man said. "Why don't you show me if you can?"

Then the man walked into a room, Tonks following, before he shoved her into another. Tonks nearly fell, but kept to her feet. She surveyed the room. There were overturned objects, and random blocks across the area. Tonks saw something pop up, a shape of a human, and ducked behind one of the barriers.

She peeked over it, and saw the shape coming towards her. It was a sort of wooden board. In fact, it looked much like that of a practice dummy that moved in those old muggle movies her father had shown her. Tonks grinned to herself, and fingered her wand.

The object came closer, and closer, before she leapt up, pointed her wand at it, and muttered a spell.

"Incendio!"

The dummy burst into flames, before falling down, but not burning up. Tonks guessed that there had been some spells placed upon them in order to withstand any that other's casted. Smart.

Then a sound of whirring behind her caused Tonks to leap behind another barrier before turning to face the commotion. It was another dummy, but it was spinning rather quickly towards her. Tonks raised her wand, and shouted out another spell.

"Petrificus Totalus!" she shouted.

The dummy froze in place. Tonks sighed in relief, before seeing three dummies pop up. Strategy, Tonks decided, was needed.

Tonks then planned that she would take two out from far away, while distracting the third one. Then-oh who was she kidding? The things weren't even alive! Maybe using strategy in real life situations was much better, but here, it didn't matter what you did to distract anyone. These things would easily be able to sense her.

So Tonks just destroyed the two from far away, before getting the last one a bit closer. She brushed the sweat off her forehead. When a loud sound of swishing went off, Tonks went into a defensive position. She then relaxed when she heard the man from before laugh.

"Excellent job." he said. "I give you an eight out of ten, Nymphadora. That was your sort of passing test, and you did it."

"Don't call me Nymphadora." Tonks said. "Call me Tonks. I dislike my name."

"Are you ordering me?" the man asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Er-" Tonks started.

"You have to earn what you like." the man told her. "So earn your last name."

Tonks nodded at him, meekly.

"Any questions?" the man asked.

"Yes, sir. What's your name?" Tonks frowned.

The man looked at her.

"Alastor Moody." he said.

Great, Tonks realized. Her mentor was the best dark wizard catcher in the history of wizards. Tonks had heard horrifying stories about people who disrespected him. Granted, 'mad-eye moody' had acted pretty badass, but what had happened to those people…

Tonks shook her head. She was at least glad that she had been able to get away with demanding something from him.

With that, Tonks followed the man out of the room. It would have gone just fine, except for the fact that Tonks had knocked over a coat hanger, which then proceeded to fall on one of the security guards. It was a mess, as the coat hanger was a heavy one.

Tonks was just glad that she had gotten the apprenticeship.

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><p><strong>A.N Of all of them, I think Alastor was the most OOC. Too smiley. We'll just say he was happier. About four years before he met Harry. Yeah. I have no idea what happened between then, but yeah.<strong>

**Assignment eight Major and Minor Arcana and also for Potions :D**

**Cheers!**

**Lupe**


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